Harry's Best Cupboard Memories
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Was it only a dream, or did his Daddy come to his cupboard during the night and cured him from his cold? Eight-year-old Harry isn't sure anymore. Completely AU, partly OOC, childfic., James not Harry's father.


**Harry's Best Cupboard Memories**

Eight-year-old Harry was lying in his cupboard, trapped in a half-awake state between awareness and slumber. It had rained cats and dogs in the morning when he was on his way to school, envying Dudley, who had been taken to school by car. Now, Harry was suffering from a bad cold. His throat, his head, and his eyes were too sore to sleep; moreover, his nose was running, and he was shivering violently from the cold in his cupboard. '_I just wish that I'll be well again in the morning, so that I'll be able to go to school_,' he mused, hoping to feel better soon.

Suddenly, he noticed a tall, black figure leaning over him, pressing something cold against his forehead. "My, you're very hot, aren't you?" the figure suddenly spoke to him, causing Harry to avert his eyes, looking straight into the person's face.

The figure, whom Harry recognized as a man clothed in a long, black coat, sat down on the edge of his bed and said softly, "Harry, let me quickly check on you, so that I can help you."

"Who are you?" Harry asked confused. '_Never has anybody checked on me; why now, and who is this?_' he mused, astonished.

"I'm your daddy," the man replied, sticking something cold into Harry's mouth and motioned him to be quiet for a minute. "I know that they probably told you your father had been killed, but that's not true; only your mummy is dead. However, I cannot take you to me right now; I have to win a fight against a powerful man, who wants you to remain here, first, and then I'll come and get you, in three years at the latest, you'll come to the place where I live." He finally took the thermometer back and frowned.

"Harry, you have a very high fever. What happened?"

"I got wet on the way to school, and I caught a cold, but it's not bad," Harry replied, knowing better than to complain and tell the truth about how sore his throat was.

The man unobtrusively lit the tip of his wand and motioned Harry to open his mouth once more. "I'm not going to hurt you, child; I just want to examine you," he told the boy in a soft, silky voice, causing Harry to comply automatically.

Seeing that Harry had a bad throat infection, the tall man pulled two phials out of his robe pockets and told the child, "This is medicine, Harry, and it will make you much better. Please drink all of it, and then we'll see how you feel."

'_I have nothing to fear; if he kills me, I'm going to be with my mummy_,' Harry thought, while he sniffed at the first phial.

"It won't taste well, but it'll help," the man assured him in a soothing voice, causing Harry to follow his advice without thinking any more.

Immediately, he felt much better. "Wow, I feel much better; thank you so much," he told the black man, giving him a happy smile.

"I take it that the potions worked?" the man smirked. "All right then, Harry; lie down and sleep; you'll have to go to school in a few hours." He carefully placed a kiss on the child's forehead, remaining on the edge of his bed until Harry drifted off to an undisturbed sleep.

When Harry woke up in the morning, he was very confused. '_Did I dream that there was a black man claiming to be my Daddy? But I feel as if I had never been ill; so he must really have been here and healed me_,' he thought amazed, when he got ready for school.

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

A few weeks later was Christmas. Harry already knew that he didn't have to expect anything from Father Christmas since he hadn't received any Christmas presents ever before. However, when he was sitting in his dark cupboard, being forced to listen to the Dursleys' happy voices when they opened their presents, his thoughts wandered back to the night when he had been sick and his Daddy had come and cared for him until he felt better. '_It would be so nice if he came again_,' Harry thought, wishing so badly for a tiny bit of affection. '_Maybe he would come if I caught a cold again_,' he mused, and slowly an idea formed in his mind.

Knowing that the door of his cupboard wasn't locked, because nobody wanted to be bothered on Christmas letting the freak out to use the bathroom, Harry quietly stole himself out of the house and went to play in the garden that was full of snow. It was freezing cold, but the thought that his Daddy might come again if he caught a cold kept Harry warm from the inside.

Around midnight, the tall man apparated to Private Drive and immediately transformed into his Animagus form, before he slithered into the Dursleys' garden as a beautiful black snake in order to enter his son's cupboard through a small hole like he did every night – unbeknownst to the child of course. However, he nearly jumped out of his skin, when he saw a small figure lying in the snow, fast asleep and shivering violently.

The man quickly transformed back into his human form and lightly shook the child's shoulder. "Harry, what are you doing here outside? Do you want to kill yourself?"

"You came!" Harry said amazed, not noticing how hoarse he sounded. A huge smile spread over his face.

"Can you explain why you are not in your cupboard but out in the garden? You'll catch pneumonia here out in the cold."

"I thought if I caught a cold again, you'd come again and make me feel better," Harry admitted in a small voice, shivering violently.

"Well, then let's get you into your cupboard, Harry," the man said and motioned Harry over to the back door.

However, all entrance doors were locked, and Harry told the man, "They didn't know that I was outside, and they locked the doors."

"Well, let me try. Maybe I'm a bit stronger than you," Harry's Daddy told him, pulling his wand as he spoke. "Alohomora."

"Is that...?" Harry croaked, his mouth and eyes wide open in disbelief, while he felt himself being pushed inside his cupboard. '_That was magic, wasn't it? I thought there was no such thing_,' he mused in confusion.

"Yes, Harry; that's magic. You know that you're a wizard, just like your mummy and me, don't you?"

"There is no such thing as magic," Harry repeated what Vernon had told him so many times.

"Of course there is magic, Harry. You saw how I opened the door, didn't you?"

Harry just stared at the man in admiration.

"You have to wait another two and a half years, and then you will come to Hogwarts, the best school for witchcraft and wizardry in the country. You will learn how to do magic, and I'm sure that you're a very powerful wizard," the man said, smiling at the child.

Harry quickly scrambled into bed, still shivering and still looking at the tall man in amazement. When the silky voice told him to swallow, he obeyed and gulped down two potions. "This should do it; however, I'll check on you again tomorrow night like I'm doing every night, and then we'll see if you need anything else."

"Every night?" Harry asked surprised.

"Every night," his Daddy assured him. "From the day on which you came into this house, I came to this cupboard to check on you every night, and I promise that I will do so until you're eleven and enter Hogwarts."

A huge smile played on Harry's lips as he fell asleep in his Daddy's arm.

Severus stood up and sighed. "I'm sorry, son, but I have to do that," he whispered, while he pulled his wand, the Obliviate spell on his lips.

However, there was an unknown force preventing him from casting the spell. '_During the two thousand times I already checked on Harry, I've never seen him so happy in his sleep. The memories of the two encounters with me are probably the happiest memories he has, and I have no right to take them from him_,' he decided and took a small parchment and a quill from his robe pocket.

-  
'_Dear Harry,  
Don't try to make yourself sick again. I promise that I will continue to check on you every night, and you will see me again. However, do not tell anybody about me.  
Daddy_'  
-

He then conjured a soft, green teddy bear and gave him the parchment for Harry, on which he had added another sentence, '_The teddy and the parchment are charmed with magic, so that only you can see them_.'

"I love you, son," he mumbled, before he placed a kiss on Harry's forehead and transformed back into his snake form to leave the cupboard on his normal way.

**The End**

* * *

_I am not a native speaker of English. So please excuse my mistakes!_

_All recognizable characters belong to __Mrs. Rowling__, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


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